The place for technical discussions about GA and flying.
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By Piper_pilot
#1908360
Hello,

I was flying at the weekend and noticed my Apple Watch 7 seems to have a pretty accurate way of reporting altitude. Not sure if it’s gps or inbuilt barometer.

Was curious what apps are out there to make use of smart watch when flying. I wouldn’t use the barometer on the watch to stay clear of CAS but as a reference backup thought ir may be useful

What ya think?
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By Rob P
#1908407
Piper_pilot wrote:
> I wouldn’t use the barometer on the watch to stay clear of CAS but as a
> reference backup thought ir may be useful
>
> What ya think?

If you happen to be flying an aircraft with a six-pack and nothing else when all of a sudden the altimeter packs up and you find yourself in inadvertent IMC it will give you some unreliable reference for a flight you probably won't continue anyway (one way or another)

But with most aircraft having at minimum one altimeter, one transponder with a FL readout, a tablet and a back up to the tablet with gps derived altitude, I think it falls a fair distance down the list of useful gadgets.

Rob P
By classgee
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1908417
Not while flying, but the aeroweather app is pretty cool when on the ground. You can have your local airport metar as a complication also, so it's always available at a glance.
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By skydriller
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1908418
Do these smart watches not still need you to have a phone in your pocket thereby making me wonder "why not just use your phone"? And the screen is what, an inch by an inch? But whatever floats your boat... :)
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By Hexsplosions
#1908461
skydriller wrote:
> Do these smart watches not still need you to have a phone in your pocket
> thereby making me wonder "why not just use your phone"? And the
> screen is what, an inch by an inch? But whatever floats your boat... :)

It depends on the watch. From Apple's perspective you do need to pair the Apple Watch with an iPhone, but if you have the cellular version of the watch then the iPhone does not need to be present or nearby.

It's also quite convenient to lift your wrist and see information on the complications (Apple's widgets for the Apple Watch) at a glance, rather than having to pick up, unlock and use a phone.
By Uptimist
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1908507
Rob P wrote:
“….I think it falls a fair distance down the list of useful gadgets. “

Sometimes gadgets are entirely useless but nevertheless fun to play with. Most of the flights I do are not particularly “useful” :lol:
Rob P liked this
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By Rob P
#1908509
I presume you are not encouraging having 'fun' with a watch ( :doh: ) as a way of making flights more er... useful?

Rob P
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By StratoTramp
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1908903
I've got a Garmin D2 Delta. Only bought it because my old Garmin 920XT (exercise watch) which I bought in 2012 went missing.

It does have a single-press 'direct to nearest airport' function, barometer and speed (ground!), which works in isolation from the phone, as does the route planning, you can use a map or use it in HSI track view. On the watch is stored a worldwide database of airfields built in but have to remember their ICAO names to look up!

Ideally one would have planned all likely diversion fields and are 'thumbing' the map, but it could help to quickly spot the field or know if you can make the distance when SHTF.

Has a pulse oximeter, maybe useful if started feeling dizzy, but shouldn't be that high in a microlight and I don't think it can differentiate CO like some hospital ones can, so would just read normal if poisoned.

https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/p/633654

Doubt I will ever realistically use it in flight :lol: It also displays Maps, METARs and TAFs when connected to the phone - as others have said a phone display is better so this is a bit of a gimmick. But it's another redundancy I suppose. I do have Cranfield saved to I can look at the METAR for that with quickly with one push, but really that only saves about 10 secs on searching through a phone. Not sure what I'll do with all those extra seconds.

Mostly will use it for tracking runs and hikes, like my old 920XT.